Court sentences 27 militants to death over IS Camp Speicher massacre

Iraqi soldiers carry coffins containing the remains of ten of their comrades who were killed in Camp Speicher massacre. File Photo

Baghdad (Iraqnewsservice.com) The Central Criminal Court of Iraq has sentenced 27 convicts to death for taking part in the Camp Speicher massacre in 2014.

“The Central Criminal Court’s decision was based on Article number (4) of the anti-terrorism law,” spokesman for Iraq’s Supreme Judicial Council, Abdul-Sattar al-Birqdar, said in a statement.

“The ruling is preliminary and can be challenged in the Federal Court of Cassation,” he added.

After capturing the city of Tikrit in June 2014, Islamic State group executed more than 1700 Iraqi soldiers in Camp Speicher base, northwest of Tikrit, then threw dozens of the bodies in the Tigris River and buried hundreds in mass graves.

In the same month, Iraqi judicial authorities executed 31 convicts linked to the massacre.

IS had suffered losses in Iraq and Syria, as the Iraqi government declared victory over Islamic State militants in western Mosul last month, saying it concluded more than eight months of battles to recapture the city which the militants held as the capital of their self-styled “caliphate” since 2014. The eastern side of the city was retaken late January.

The group still holds a few areas in each of Anbar, Salahuddin, Diyala and Kirkuk.